THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The will be one ray of sunshine. The Norwegian curling team will be dressed to the 10's (one better than 9's) for this years competition.

The sun had set on the Strip and some members of the Norwegian curling team were taking a break from competing in a tournament here. They were ready to hit the town, the Bellagio, perhaps, and maybe dinner at Caesars Palace. But the men knew that tourists would not recognize them as Scandinavian stars of an obscure sport.

People cared more about their pants.

In a scene straight out of a geekier version of “Ocean’s Eleven,” Thomas Ulsrud, the team’s skip, wore purple paisley pants with a matching jacket. Christoffer Svae opted for a tuxedo with a playing card pattern, and Haavard Vad Petersson wore bright pink cotton candy swirls with dots of electric green.

Camera phones, laughter and the drunken exclamations of tourists followed the team as they traversed the dizzying casino carpet.

“You would think in Vegas people have seen crazy stuff like that before,” Svae said. “But they got a lot of attention.”

The curlers have gotten used to people paying attention to their clothes. In 2010, at the Vancouver Games, where the Norwegians won a silver medal, they made a splash when they made the sheet of curling ice their runway, competing in bright red, white and blue pants, the colors of their country’s flag.

The pants came as a shock in a sport in which athletes traditionally wear black and draw little notice outside of curling circles.

But for the coming Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, the Norwegian team is back, and so are their pants.

This year, there are at least two new pairs: one that’s a zigzag homage to their country’s flag and one that’s black and flowery and could be called grandmother-chic.

Gotta love it!